Catalogue > At random

Betty €233, 2014, Full HD,10’ Questioning social and economical status and the opportunity given to immigrants we joined VB Dutch Cleaning company where we met cleaning lady: Betty Lalaram from Suriname. Three times a week she polishes the offices and exhibition space of TENT, Rotterdam Art Center. We gave Betty our video camera and we got instead her mop. The most physical jobs earn too little, we realized then, and that is why we tried to arrange a salary increase for Betty while confronting her boss.

From the moment we created the duo Gil & Moti, in 1998, we have explored the notion of individuality and questioned forms and norms of identity. Sharing is an ongoing experiment on a visual, mental and physical level, which includes: always dressing identically, never going apart, owning one wallet, one phone and one pair of keys. The denial of the boundaries between private and public, performance and social intervention is central in our work, which often starts small, close to ourselves and rooted in our personal life, but soon extends to a variety of important socio-political themes, such as discriminated minorities, racism, otherness and social and economical status. As artists, a gay couple, Jewish born (ex)Israelis and immigrants living in Europe, we contribute to the critical cultural discourse about human relationships, being different, and about sets of rules that are supposed to regulate social existence. Switching effortlessly between classical and contemporary artistic mediums of expression, we continuously challenge ourselves and our audience by introducing creative and refreshing perspectives. Gil & Moti are the winners of MK Award 2015. They have been showing internationally in museums and galleries. The recent major overview exhibition Totally Devoted to You, accompanied by an extensive monograph (publishing house: Hatje Cantz), was traveling through five important European art centers and museums: Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, Austria (2012)/ Stavanger Kunstmuseum, Norway / Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden / Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany / Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denemark (2011).